Books
Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (paperback)(London, UK: Bloomsbury, 2001). Biskind's thesis is that despite - or because of the excesses of the 1970s - great films such as Chinatown and The Godfather, which were highly personal and challenging, were produced.
Jan Bone, Ana Fernandez, Opportunities in Film Careers, revised ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2004) Realistic advice on the availability of jobs and the necessary preparation for them in both the U.S. and Canada; separate chapters on pre-production, production, and postproduction.
Molly Haskell, Holding My Own in No Man's Land: Women and Men and Film and Feminists (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). This collection of readings continues Haskell's argument from her earlier book, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987). Haskell argues that movies are a social index of problems in society; when women are mistreated in film, it reflects how society fells about them in general.
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, ed. The Oxford History of World Cinema (New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 1999) A comprehensive history of film.
David Puttnam, Movies and Money (New York: Vintage, 2000). A former Oscar -winning producer and studio chief, Puttnam, explains the economics of both the historical and current industry. He deals with the eccentric and often brilliant moguls of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer, Daryl Zanuck, and David O. Selznick. He argues that the costs of filmmaking are out of control, movie stars are treated like spoiled children, and studios have yielded too much power to agents and producers.
Films. Videos and DVDs
The American Cinema (1995) A 10-part PBS documentary series examining the art of the American movies through classic film clips and interviews with filmmakers. Three episodes focus on the film industry, examining cinematic craftsmanship, the influence of the movie star, and the power of the studios. Four episodes examine the specific genres; westerns, romantic comedies, combat films, and film noir. The final three parts chronicle how the movies met the challenge of competing technologies.
Bowfinger (1999, rated R) a knowing look at Hollywood movie making, starring Steve Martin (who also wrote the script) as the producer-director, Eddie Murphy as the star, and Heather Graham as the starlet determined to sleep her way to the top.
Get Shorty (1995, rated R) John Travolta stars as a small time, super-cool Miami mobster who comes to Hollywood to make movies - and turns out to have all the requisite skills to be a top producer. A clever satire of the way Hollywood works.
Living in Oblivion (1995, rated R) Independent feature about the making of a low budget, independent feature, from several points of view. Steve Buscemi stars.
The Player (1992, rated R) Robert Altman directed this dark comedy that examines the way greed and power affect what movies get made, and by whom. Stars Tim Robbins as a paranoid young movie executive.
